Christian Watson, Romeo Doubs give Packers QB Jordan Love options in passing game

Carmen Vitali

NFC North Reporter

As far back as the NFL Combine, Packers head coach Matt LaFleur talked about still wanting a veteran wide receiver. A week into training camp, that hasn’t happened. Therefore, the question remains if Green Bay has a bona fide No. 1 receiver on a team that now features a youth-infused offense led by quarterback Jordan Love.

The answer is … sort of.

Love will be relying on young talent all around him between his receiver corps and tight end room. Two names are emerging in these early days of camp: Romeo Doubs and Christian Watson. And together, they make up that all-around No. 1 wideout the Packers will rely on this season. Doubs and Watson are aiming to be as well-rounded as possible — together.

“Me and [Doubs] know there’s going to be a lot of opportunities for us this year,” Watson said this week. “The goal for both of us is to … just be able to do a little bit of everything and continue to add things to our toolbox.”

Watson is talking in terms of “we” and “us,” fusing the two together into one super receiver. Reports out of Green Bay tell us Doubs has gotten most of the targets from Love so far, but Watson has a knack for the big play. Both second-year players already have a level of comfortability with Love that’s allowing them to settle into those roles.

“We got the man look we wanted so we [went] away from the other play and we went to the man-beater,” Watson said of one recent deep route. “I gave [cornerback Jaire Alexander] a release off the line and used my speed to run away. It was a perfect ball – right on the outside shoulder, right on the red line. I couldn’t have asked for a better ball. It was right in the stride. It was perfect.”

Coming from a player who scored eight touchdowns in four games last season, it’s good to see he’s getting the better of a Pro Bowl-caliber corner like Alexander, even if the defense is still winning the competitive periods more often. It suggests he’ll still be productive in the scoring category, but don’t draft him as your WR1 in your fantasy leagues just yet.

See, the LaFleur offense, like every system in the Kyle Shanahan/Sean McVay tree, relies heavily on 11 personnel (1 RB, 1 TE, 3 WRs). That’s the alignment the Packers are in most often, though they do trot out 12 personnel (1 RB, 2 TEs, 2 WRs) at a top-three clip, as well.

What this means when you’re drawing up plays for three wideouts is that you have an outside receiver, X, another outside receiver mirroring him on the other side, Z, and a slot receiver, S, on the inside of the Z. Many folks think of the X as the No. 1 receiver, and they’d be right, but it doesn’t necessarily mean that player gets the lion’s share of the targets. It means the team is the most comfortable with him on an island.

If primarily on the outside, the X role is then limited to the routes the receiver can run, though this varies by team and scheme. There’s nothing stopping you from condensing the formation, something the Packers do, in order to give each outside receiver a little more breathing room between him and the sideline.

Romeo Doubs says Jordan Love can do ‘same exact thing’ as Aaron Rodgers

It also comes in handy when you ask your receivers to be part of the blocking scheme, which the Packers definitely do. That’s something that Watson is comfortable with already, having been asked to block in college at North Dakota State.

This role also very much sets Watson up for the big play. As good of a route runner as he is, he can manipulate defensive backs to get open and create separation down the sideline. We’ve already seen that work out for him this camp, as evidenced by the play he talked about going against Alexander. Given that those two are the fastest players on the team, it makes sense they’re matched up with one another.

“Just the other day, Christian was talking to me about how to run a certain route and today, in one-on-ones, he used that against me,” said Alexander. “I was happy to see that. It was incomplete, so I was happy to see that, too.”

Doubs has also had opportunities to match up against Alexander, and, well, it’s evident Watson isn’t the only one taking notes.

Doubs has been all over the place in camp and his chemistry is already there with Love. Doubs worked out with the QB in California prior to the offseason program even starting. Other players would join, including Watson, over the summer. But Love and Doubs seem especially dialed in.

“We had a good time out there,” Love said, via the Packers’ official website. “Usually in the offseason, you’re throwing with other people that don’t run the same routes that you run in your offense, so just being able to have that familiarity and build those connections with those guys was awesome.”

Coming out of college, Doubs was deemed a tough receiver, one who is able to win contested ball situations with his 6-foot-2 frame. If he is already on the same page with the routes Love wants to run, there’s nothing to suggest Doubs won’t hog targets while Watson stretches the field and makes the big play.

They all get to develop with Love, presumably making the offense a bit more collaborative and open to play to each player’s skill set than was the case with Love’s predecessor. That wiggle-room and creativity could blossom into an unexpectedly good year in Green Bay as a result.

Carmen Vitali covers the NFC North for FOX Sports. Carmen had previous stops with The Draft Network and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. She spent six seasons with the Bucs, including 2020, which added the title of Super Bowl Champion (and boat-parade participant) to her résumé. You can follow Carmen on Twitter at @CarmieV.

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